Political Celebrity Matters

It is very hard for a party in power during a major financial crisis and subsequent recession to maintain their majority.  They own the job losses and foreclosures whether or not these systemic forces were directly their fault (and in most cases they were). This illustrates the most salient reason why Gordon Brown's Labour party lost big last night in the U.K. just as John McCain's Republican party lost in 2008.  Both parties had overseen dramatic growth over 6-8 years and we are in the midst of a 2-year financial collapse as we all realize we were all part of an economy that didn't exist.

But there's one other factor that I think played a key role in the fall of Labour last night and that's the fact that Gordon Brown is just a really unappealing guy.  This was the first year that the U.K. had televised Prime Minister debates "American style".  And as we've learned from the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960, those who listened to the debate on the radio believed Nixon had won, and those who viewed the first presidential debates on their televisions believed sweaty, five o'clock shadow Nixon had lost and it was charismatic Senator Jack Kennedy that won.

If Tony Blair were still Prime Minister of the U.K. today, Labour still would be headed for major losses, but I have the strong feeling that those losses would have been mitigated significantly.  Regardless of policy, you just don't feel like voting for Brown. Britain, Britain, Britain, welcome to the vanity club.